Door hardware having floating lock rod

ABSTRACT

An arcuate camming finger at each end of a rod extends above and below the latching edge of a door of a trailer or container. The fingers enter the opening to a hollow housing or keeper which is secured to the header and sill of the trailer or container for producing the final movement of the door to closed and locked position. The rod is mounted in supporting elements which permits it to bodily move transversely on the door when the ends of the fingers engage a camming surface within the housing or keeper. The lateral movement of the rod and fingers shifts a projecting detent on the side of the opposite rod from that from which the fingers extend into locked engagement with an edge of the housing to withstand the outward force on the door and to prevent the fingers from reversely rotating.

United States Patent [191 Sweda DOOR HARDWARE HAVING FLOATING LOCK ROD [75] Inventor: Adam D. Sweda, Grosse Point Farms, Mich.

[73] Assignee: F ruehauf Corporation, Detroit,

Mich.

221 Filed: Mar. 27, 1972v 21 App1.No.:238,567

[52] US. Cl 292/67, 292/218, 292/DIG. 32, 292/D1G. 72 [51] Int. Cl. E05c 5/00 [58] FieldofSearch ..292/218,67,DIG. 32, 292/1316. 72

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,329,456 7/1967 Olander 292/218 425,323 4/1890 Hornal et a 292/D1G. 32 3,434,751 3/1969 Tantlinger et al. 292/218 3,661,412 5/1972 Morris 292/218 Apr. 23, 1974 Primary Examiner-Henry C. Sutherland Assistant Examiner-William F. Pate, 111 Attorney, Agent, or FirmHarness, Dickey & Pierce s71 ABSTRACT An arcuate camming finger at each end of a rod extends above and below the latching edge of a door of a trailer or container. The fingers enter the opening to a hollow housing or keeper which is secured to the header and sill of the trailer or container for producing the final movement of the door to closed and locked position. The rod is mounted in supporting elements which permits it to bodily move transversely on the door when the ends of the fingers engage a camming surface within the housing or keeper. The lateral movement of the rod and fingers shifts a projecting detent on the side of the opposite rod from that from which the fingers extend into locked engagement with an edge of the housing to withstand the outward force on the door and to prevent the fingers from reversely rotating.

8 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DOOR HARDWARE I'iAvING FLOATING Lofik ROD BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Reference may be had to the patent to K. W. Tantlinger, US. Pat. No. 3,633,954, which was assigned to the assignee of the present invention, to show a door closure and locking mechanism.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is applied to one or to the pair of doors illustrated in the above mentioned patent. The locking edge of the door has elongated brackets for supporting a rod for bodily transverse movement on the face of the door. The ends of the rod extend beyond the top and bottom edge of the door and have an arcuate camming finger secured thereto which can be projected inwardly of the door when moved by a handle secured to the rod between the brackets.

Keepers in the nature of hollow housings are mounted on the header and sill of the body or container aligned with the projecting finger which passes through an opening into the hollow interior of the housing when the door is near final closing position. The fingers extend within the housing and move over a projecting edge when the rod is turned to draw the door inwardly toward final closed position. The end of thefingers passes over a cam surface on the inner side wall of the housing which moves the fingers laterally away from the door edge moving the rod in the bracket laterally therewith. This moves a projecting detent on the finger on the side of the rod opposite to that from which the finger extends for engaging the inner projecting edge of the housing. The detent takes any force applied to the inner surface of the door which would otherwise tend to rotate the finger toward the opening position. This removes the force against the inner face of the door from the handle and the engaged brackets on the door and applies the force to the detent and the housing.

The cam fingers are elongated and tapered to provide useful mechanical advantage to close the doors even when the end frames may be twisted because the vehicle is parked on uneven terrain. The cam fingers have a long reach especially when mounted on the ends of the laterally shiftable locking rods, the tops of which can shift in one direction and the bottoms in the opposite direction and still engage the keepers on an extremely twisted end frame. Elongated supporting brackets permit this movement of the rods. In addition,

the same extended cam fingers provide a reverse camming action to generate a force to break the door seals when opening the door. This reverse carnming action occurs initially to break the seals permitting the doors to readily swing open thereafter. When the doors are in closed and locked position, the rods assist in preventing the racking of the door frame. Besides the opening for receiving the cam fingers, the housings have an aperture through the front thereof aligned with the end of the cam surface engaged by the end of the fingers and through which any accumulation of debris may be urged by the end of the fingers from the interior of the housings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a view in elevation of the rear face of a trailer, truck body or container having locking means thereonfor the doors embodying features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged sectional face of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken on the line 2-2 thereof;

FIG. 3 is a view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 2 showing the different positions of the latching finger during the opening and closing of the door, and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the structure illustrated in FIG. 1, taken on the line 4-4 thereof.

- DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A trailer, truck body or container 10 has a pair of doors 11, 12, made of any acceptable material, secured to the rear open end by a plurality of hinges 13. The free edges of the door has reinforcing elements 14 secured thereto which abut the top header 15 and bottom sill 16 when the doors are in closed position. Each of the doors adjacent to the reinforcing elements 14 have a plurality of brackets 17 secured thereto by a plurality of fasteners 18, such as bolts, rivets and the like, as illustrated more specifically in FIG. 4. The brackets 17 are elongated permitting an operating rod 19 supported therein to be shifted laterally on the outer face of the doors. The ends of the rods 19 have an arcuate camming finger 21 welded or otherwise secured thereto in aligned relation to each other. The header l5 and sill 16 have housings or keepers 22 welded or otherwise secured thereto, one for each finger, the housings having an opening 23 communicating with a hollow interior 24. The housing has an inwardly extending camming edge 25 and a camming reinforced edge 26. The housings are welded or otherwise secured to the header and sill in fixed relation thereto to have the openings 23 aligned with the fingers 21 when extended theretoward. Each of the rods has an operating handle 27 fixedly secured thereto and pivotally mounted thereon for vertical movement so that it can be engaged and secured within locking brackets 28.

When the doors 11 and 12 are to be opened, the operating handles 27 are moved from the brackets 28 and are pulled outwardly from the rear face of the door to have the rods 19 moved laterally toward the free edge thereof by the action of the detents 29 operating on the reinforced edges 26. When the doors are in open position, the operating handles 27 are not supported in the brackets 28 but are left free to hang down from their supporting pivots. When the detent 29 clears the edge 26, the further rotation of the rod 19 permits the backside of the finger to engage the back wall of the housing 22 and pry the door outwardly to open position. The cam fingers 21 move from the position 31 of FIG. 2 through the positions 32, 33 and 34 of FIG. 2, the latter position permitting the door to be swung completely open and also to be swung to substantially closed position.

When the door is to be closed, the handle 27 is swung outwardly to move the fingers 21 to the position 34 of FIG. 3 and as the door is pushed toward final closed position and the handle 27 rotated against the door, the fingers 21 will advance over the extending edges 25 to the position 33, then to the position 32 where the door is substantially closed. The further movement of the handle against the outer surface of the door causes the end 35 of the fingers to move up the cam surfaces 36 and force the fingers 21 to the right along with the rod 19 to the position illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4 with the detent 29 disposed in the vicinity of or in engagement with the reinforced edge 26. Any force applied to the inner surface of the door will be taken by the detent 29 against the edge 26 at the top and the bottom of the door and will prevent the mechanism or door from being damaged or the door from being opened. The mechanism may be applied to a single door or to a pair of doors such as doors 11 and 12 illustrated in FIG. 1.

Because of the substantial length of the fingers, they will engage the camming edges 25 even though the rear frame is badly racked and be effective in closing the doors even though the top and bottom of the rods 19 have been displaced in opposite directions. The final closing movement shifts the rod 19, the fingers 21 and detent 29 away from the door edge and move the detent toward the reinforced edge 26.

I claim:

1. In a latching and locking mechansim for a door hinged at an opening having a header and sill above and below thereof, a plurality of brackets on the door each having a laterally disposed elongated opening therein, a rod supported in said opening at the edge of the door opposite to the hinged edge thereof, a cam finger mounted on each end-of the rod above and below said door, hollow housings, one secrured to the header the other to the sill, the outer wall of said housings having an opening between the ends the ends thereof providing sections extending toward each other, means for rotating said rod, a cam on the inner surface of the housings engaged by the ends of the fingers for shifting the rod laterally toward the edge portion of the housing opposite to that containing the cam, and a detent near the ends of the rod extending in a direction opposite to that from which the fingers extend, whereby the finger and detent are located within the housing behind the extending sections of the wall in spaning relation thereto retained thereat by the engagement of the finger ends with said cam surfaces.

2. In a latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for rotating the rod is a handle secured thereto and disposed against the outer surface of the door when the cam fingers and detents are disposed within the housing across the opening therein.

3. In a latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 2 wherein a camming edge is provided on the wall extensions at each side of the opening on one of which the finger is cammed to draw the door into closed position.

4. In a latching mechanism for a door, a latch rod on said door, a slotted bracket on said door in which said latch rod is vertically supported for rotation and for lateral bodily movement, a cam finger on said latch rod, a door frame, a hollow housing on said door frame having an opening through the outer wall providing wall extensions facing each other, a cam on one of said wall extensions engaged by said cam finger when the door is closing for camming the door to closed position upon the rotation of said rod, a cam surface Within said housing engageable by the end of said cam finger for shifting the rod laterally toward saidother wall extension, and locking detent means on said rod engageable with said other wall extension upon lateral movement of the rod to preclude opening movement of said door when the finger and detent means are located within the housing behind the wall extensions.

5. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 4, wherein said locking detent means comprises a finger extending from the side of the rod opposite to that from which the cam finger extends.

6. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 5, wherein the wall extension adjacent to said locking detent means is reinforced and engaged by said detent means within the housing when the rod is shifted.

7. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 4, wherein the housing has an aperture located adjacent to the forward end of the cam surface through which. debris may be discharged by the end of the finger.

8. A latching and locking mechanism for a door hinged at the end of a vehicle body having a header at the top and a sill at the bottom of the door opening, hollow housings, one secured to said header and the other to said sill, each said housing having an outwardly facing wall containing an opening having side extensions containing camming edges at the facing ends, a

laterally shiftable rotatable rod on said door, a cam within the housing, a camming finger on each end of the rod aligned with the opening through the wall of the housings for shifting the rod laterally when engaging the cams of the housings, and a detent on each rod end which extend in the opposite direction from that of said fingers whereby when the rod is shifted the detents are moved to a position within the housings behind the camming edges of the extending walls toward which the rod is moved to have the fingers and detents extend across the housing opening. 

1. In a latching and locking mechansim for a door hinged at an opening having a header and sill above and below thereof, a plurality of brackets on the door each having a laterally disposed elongated opening therein, a rod supported in said opening at the edge of the door opposite to the hinged edge thereof, a cam finger mounted on each end of the rod above and below said door, hollow housings, one secrured to the header the other to the sill, the outer wall of said housings having an opening between the ends the ends thereof providing sections extending toward each other, means for rotating said rod, a cam on the inner surface of the housings engaged by the ends of the fingers for shifting the rod laterally toward the edge portion of the housing opposite to that containing the cam, and a detent near the ends of the rod extending in a direction opposite to that from which the fingers extend, whereby the finger and detent are located within the housing behind the extending sections of the wall in spaning relation thereto retained thereat by the engagement of the finger ends with said cam surfaces.
 2. In a latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for rotating the rod is a handle secured thereto and disposed against the outer surface of the door when the cam fingers and detents are disposed within the housing across the opening therein.
 3. In a latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 2 wherein a camming edge is provided on the wall extensions at each side of the opening on one of which the finger is cammed to draw the door into closed position.
 4. In a latching mechanism for a door, a latch rod on said door, a slotted bracket on said door in which said latch rod is vertically supported for rotation and for lateral bodily movement, a cam finger on said latch rod, a door frame, a hollow housing on said door frame having an opening through the outer wall providing wall extensions facing each other, a cam on one of said wall extensions engaged by said cam finger when the door is closing for camming the door to closed position upon the rotation of said rod, a cam surface within said housing engageable by the end of said cam finger for shifting the rod laterally toward said other wall extension, and locking detent means on said rod engageable with said other wall extension upon lateral movement of the rod to preclude opening movement of said door when the finger and detent means are located within the housing behind the wall extensions.
 5. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 4, wherein said locking detent means comprises a finger extending from the side of the rod opposite to that from which the cam finger extends.
 6. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 5, wherein the wall extension adjacent to said locking detent means is reinforced and engaged by said detent means within the housing when the rod is shifted.
 7. A latching and locking mechanism for a door as recited in claim 4, wherein the housing has an aperture located adjacent to the forward end of the cam surface through which debris may be discharged by the end of the finger.
 8. A latching and locking mechanism for a door hinged at the end of a vehicle body having a header at the top and a sill at the bottom of the door opening, hollow housings, one secured to said header and the other to said sill, each said housing having an outwardly facing wall containing an opening having side extensions containing camming edges at the facing ends, a laterally shiftable rotatable rod on said door, a cam within the housing, a camming finger on each end of the rod aligned with the opening through the wall of the housings for shifting the rod laterally when engaging the cams of the housings, and a detent on each rod end which extend in the opposite direction from that of said fingers whereby when the rod is shifted the detents are moved to a position within the housings behind the camming edges of the extending walls toward which the rod is moved to have the fingers and detents extend across the housing opening. 